There has been a great deal of upgrading going on at the LIFEhouse. An army
of LIFEhouse members have been moving dirt, rocks and debris.


Real men doing REAL work!


Everyone pitched in to make our facilities look their best!


Thanks to Dan Heinze and Oliver Crandell who have been spearheading this
project and coordinating the efforts of so many so that we are seeing a
dramatic impact on the appearance and attractiveness of our facilities.

        

These are great days in the life of our church.  We saw an army of people show for a workday to get our facilities ship shape in preparation for bringing our guests to the Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday services.

Last night Jathan Good and our church choir created a wonderfully reflective worship experience as we held our Good Friday services, took communion together and burned up those accusations that Satan is hurling our direction.  The roasting of marshmellows over the open flame was quite a touch!

        

Last Friday night our women gathered together to raise funds for a vital ministry called "Acres of Hope."  The night was called, "An Evening of Hope", and women, young and seasoned gathered in the name of Christ to share crafts, sing praise, sell backed goods etc, with one purpose in mind, to give all the proceeds to a dynamic ministry to single moms and their children.



$1200 dollars was raised.  Thank you Lord for using our women to make such a big difference.

Last month, my LIFEgroup visited Acres of Hope, located in Applegate just up the I-80 from our church.  The facility can handle 11 women and their children.  Since we had two hairdressers in our LIFEgroup, we decided that we wanted to cut everyone's hair for free as a ministry to these recovering families.

We were so impressed with the ministry.  77% of the moms were abused or neglected as a child; 41% lived in foster care; 73% were sexually molested as children; 89% suffer from addictions with 77% haing been exposed to drugs or alcohol as children; 95% have experienced domestic violence by a past partner.

We spoke with one women who has been clean for two years and became a Christ follower one year ago.  Another woman had graduated from the program and was plugged into a strong church and was working in a computer business run by Christians.

What an honor to partner with this special ministry!

One of our Women's LIFEgroups recently participated in fund raiser for another vital ministry to women in our community.  It is called "Mercy House" and it is opening up a home in Lincoln that can handle 40 single women who are recovering from addictions, eating disorders, depression, self harm, unplanned pregnancy, abuse etc.

The home will open in February, 2009.  Check out this video.  See progress on the home.

        

In these times we know that many are sacrificing to support the
ministry of our church.  We understand that there are many places where
people can give and we need to be accountable and worthy of trust as we
manage what has been entrusted to our care.

How do we handle church finances?

Our Financial Controls:

1. We will spend LESS than we bring in.

2. Our giving will be spread out over MANY people (not a few).

3. No debt on DEPRECIATING items

4. We will SAVE for surprises (Genesis 41:34, Proverbs 30:24-25)

a) Crisis

b) Opportunity

5. We commit ...<< MORE >>

Yesterday afternoon I showed up at church to participate in the celebration of a life.  We were there to honor the life of Robert Archie Noyes, the father of Bob Noyes Jr., a long time member of The LIFEhouse.
Last week, Bob Jr gave me Bob Sr.'s diary from his experience in the Marines during WWII as he served on the Battleship, USS West Virginia.  I read every page as this Marine wrote of days of routine duties, chipping paint on the ship, and performing maintenance work on the ship's artillery, followed by days of sheer terror as the Japanese dive bombed and strafed the ship.  Bob was there when Iwo Jima was shelled relentlessly as 20,000 Japanese were killed on the island, and only 1,000 were taken captive.  He was there on the ship overlooking the island when the six men placed that American flag on the Island, on mount Suribachi.


Our worship center was filled with WWII veterans, who were there to honor Bob and pay their respects.  Post 169 of the American Legion was there to present the American Flag to Bob's family, to play taps and to fire three rounds in memory of Robert Archie Noyes.
I felt that I was on holy ground, and did my best to express gratitude to these valient, and often unthanked veterans for their service to our country and willingness to pay such a great price for our freedom.
Some of these veterans never enter into a church, except to attend a funeral.  So I took the opportunity to give a clear gospel presentation of how much God loves us, how we blew it by sinning against our perfect Father, how Jesus came to be a bridge back to God and how we much choose to cross the bridge.
What a tregedy that there are men and women who have risked their lives to save our country, and yet they have yet to experience the saving faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It just reminded me that life is brief and the time to honor those who have served us well is fleeting.
Then today, I wrote a letter to a soldier and wrote the words of Jesus, "greater love has no one than this, that he lay his life down for his friends."
Do you know a soldier that needs some words of encouragement and honor?  The time is now.